It is hard to avoid deep scepticism about this policy, which involves the payments of billions of pounds to Turkey and the acceleration of Ankara’s application to join the EU however fanciful a prospect that might be. An agreement struck last September was by now meant to have led to the relocation of some 160,000 immigrants to countries around Europe. Yet, to date, just a few hundred people have taken part in the resettlement programme which is being fiercely resisted by many member states, especially in eastern Europe.

Migrants arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos on MondayCredit:
Guillaume Pinon/NurPhoto

Will this latest set of measures work any better? Greece is required to process arrivals from Turkey and consider any applications for asylum, a legal requirement under the UN Refugee Convention. In theory, any immigrant without free movement rights in the EU should be deported immediately. Turkey has also been hastily building administrative centres to facilitate their return and to fulfil the other part of the deal – which is to allow one Syrian from a refugee camp to travel legitimately to Europe in exchange for every irregular migrant it takes back, capped at 72,000.

Germany said it expects to begin taking in the first settlers, mainly families with children, under these arrangements from this week. This is a critical moment for the EU: if this scheme fails to stem the flow of migration into Europe this summer, the crisis can only deepen.